


Atobe in Wonderland

by CrunchySalad



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, No Sex, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-04-30
Updated: 2005-04-30
Packaged: 2017-10-19 10:39:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/199923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrunchySalad/pseuds/CrunchySalad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atobe has a strange dream in which he wears a dress and Jirou wears lingerie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Atobe in Wonderland

Atobe sat primly underneath the shade of a lovely dogwood tree, the picture of perfection on a summer's day. The breeze lightly tousled his hair, pink petals drifted down just to be near his beauty, and the skirts of his lovely blue dress puffed out around him in that 'just so' way that made him look not unlike a delectable confectionary. He was, he supposed, in a rather bored manner, perfect. And yet his tutor would not let him be, and kept lecturing him on Greek verb conjugations. Could the fool not understand that Atobe Keigo was as perfectly fluent in Greek as he was perfect in every other facet of his life? What a bore.

Atobe would have sighed if he hadn't felt sighing beneath him, but as it was, he just stared up at the clouds, trying to make shapes out of the formless entities.

"Atobe-sama. Atobe-sama."

"What do you want now," Atobe muttered, not looking down from the game he had made up for himself.

"Atobe-sama, I feel that you are not listening to me."

"Then you feel correctly," Atobe replied, as his latest tutor turned crimson.

"Well. I believe we will take a break for now, then."

And it was at that moment that Kabaji, who had been sleeping peacefully on Atobe's lap, sprung up and ran away.

"Kabaji!" Atobe yelled, picking up his skirts to go chase after his beloved pet.

Atobe's tutor watched as the young boy ran off, the ribbons in his hair trailing after him. "Really. I don't know what the young master was thinking, bringing his pet monkey out here."

Atobe chased Kabaji over the glade until they arrived at a small creek, framed by lively green trees and hidden in the shade. Atobe slowed his pace, careful of the gentle slope and perturbing rocks, as Kabaji splashed to the other side.

"Kabaji, no!" Atobe yelled, but there was nothing for it, so he lowered himself onto the banks and removed his shoes and thin, white socks. The creek was cold, but welcome in the summer heat, and the water only came up to ankle high. In no time at all Atobe was on the other side, but it was at that point that he discovered his Kabaji was gone to directions unknown.

"Oh, poo," he said, pouting as he sat back down. Whatever was he to do now? His father would, of course, buy him a new pet, but it just wouldn't be the same. It was then that his hearing caught the sound of something, a gentle breathing noise above the rustle of the creek. It sounded like... snoring. Atobe stood up and crept towards it, finding himself at a bit of shrubbery. Parting the bushes, he was amused to find a sleeping little blond, all dressed up in bunny ears and negligee. He really was rather cute.

"Excuse me," Atobe said, wondering if this bunny had seen Kabaji before falling asleep. "Excuse me."

The bunny stirred, but didn't wake up until Atobe poked him with a stick.

"What-" The bunny sat straight up, eyes big and worried. He flailed about for a bit before standing up all the way. "Oh my God! It's not here! I have to go and find it!"

"That's all well and good," Atobe said, "but I have a problem."

But the bunny, perhaps not understanding the severity of Atobe's problems, ignored him and ran off.

"Really," Atobe pouted, indignant, before deciding that he would follow the bunny until he was paid attention to. "Excuse me, but I said I have a problem!"

Atobe ran after the bunny, wondering why the he wasn't paying attention to him, when suddenly he was falling through a very large hole. He shrieked, until he remembered that Atobe Keigo didn't shriek, and he wondered what he should do... really, for falling, he wasn't going very fast. It was almost a leisurely pace. So, calmed, he let himself float down the tunnel, until his small bare feet touched the ground.

"Now," Atobe said to himself, brushing off his skirts, "where did that bunny go?"

Atobe walked down a long, long corridor, until he reached a small, hexagonal room. He spun around... it was a dead end. But he swore, the bunny must have fallen through this way as well... it was then that he noticed two small velvet boxes upon a glass table, and a note to accompany them.

"One pill makes you smaller," Atobe read, "and one pill makes you tall."

He opened the box, and found little round cakes decorated in fondant and pearls in each one.

"Hmm." He pocketed two, one of each kind, and one in each of his pockets. They would, he supposed, come in very handy. Looking around the room with a new perspective, he realized that if he grew much taller he wouldn't even fit in it. If he grew smaller, however... Atobe scanned the walls closer to the floor, not surprised to find a tiny door on one side. Really, he was so smart. But then.. which cake had which effect? Atobe took out both cakes and held them out in front of him... the blue cake decorated in argyle print, or the pink cake decorated in candies and ruffles?

"Well, here goes," Atobe said, and took a bite of one at random. The cakes fell out of his hands as a strange, tingling sensation overtook his body, and he closed his eyes as he simultaneously stopped breathing and started falling. Worry overcame him for a moment before he landed on his pert little bottom, and breathing was restored.

Atobe opened his eyes and smiled as he realized he was just the right size to fit through the door. He walked up to both cakes, breaking off a little piece of each one to place in his pockets, a journey that took him no less then ten minutes at his size. Prepared, he opened the door handle and walked through, directly into a green and lush forest.

"How strange," Atobe murmured, noting that gumdrops and taffy seemed to be growing on the trees. Where was this world into which he had fallen? Music floated towards his ears and he walked towards it, curious. It took him some minutes, but finally he came upon a quaint little candy house, and walked up to the backyard to where the music was playing.

There was a table set up, covered in teapots and teacups in all manner of sizes and colors, and two occupants seated at far ends of the table. There was, as far as Atobe could tell, no source of music, and yet the notes were loudest here. The occupants had stopped their conversation now, and were looking at Atobe with apt interest.

"My, my," said one of them, and he had glasses that were two times as big as his face and spoke in Kansai-ben, "a cute little boy has stumbled into our little tea party, Gaku-chan."

He smiled in a way that made Atobe very uncomfortable.

"Oooh, Yuushi-chan, a new friend to have tea with!" exclaimed Gaku-chan, who was another bunny in negligee. Except his ears and lingerie were pink, to match his bright red hair, instead of white and black like the other bunny's. "You will have tea with us, won't you?"

Tea! Atobe wasn't sure that he liked this pair, but if it was one thing he understood, it was tea.

"Actually," he said, about to sit down, "I wouldn't mind a cup of tea. But you see, I'm rather in a rush. I'm looking for a bunny."

"I'm a bunny!" Gaku-chan exclaimed, turning around to show off his tail and cute apple ass.

"A different bunny," explained Atobe, before realizing that the chair he had been holding onto had disappeared. He looked around the table to see that all the chairs had, in fact, disappeared, save for the two that were already occupied.

"Oh no," Yuushi-chan said, "you must sit next to me, so that I might hear you better."

A stool suddenly appeared before the smirking boy.

"Umm, yes." Atobe climbed onto the stool, which was rather hard to balance on. Still, he managed it, and took the pink and yellow tea cup that Yuushi-chan offered him.

"I want to play too!" Gaku-chan said, somersaulting over the table before landing on a cushion that Atobe was quite sure hadn't been there a moment ago. "Tell us your name!"

What a rude way to ask, Atobe though, but he wasn't going to reprimand his hosts. "My name is Atobe Keigo."

"Would you like some sugar in your tea, Kei-chan?" Yuushi-chan asked, holding out a bowl of sugar cubes.

"No, that is quite alright, and I would prefer if you call me-"

"What about some milk, Kei-chan?" Gaku-chan asked, grinning as he held out a little ruby pitcher.

"Yes, actually, I would like a little." Atobe waited patiently as Gaku-chan filled his cup. "That's enough."

"Tell us about your bunny, Kei-chan," Yuushi-chan offered.

"Bunny?" Atobe took a sip of his tea before he remembered. "Oh yes, he's a blond bunny, very cute, with white ears and a black negligee."

"How interesting. Isn't that interesting, Gaku-chan?"

"Why, it's the most interesting thing I've heard all day, Yuushi-chan. To think some one is here looking for little Jirou!"

"Jirou?" So that was his name. Atobe was about to ask more, but he was feeling rather dizzy and couldn't maintain his balance on the stool. Before he could catch himself he was falling forward, right onto Yuushi-chan's lap.

"My tea-" he exclaimed, worried that his half full tea cup would spill and break, but it was only pushed back into his hands.

"Is right here," Gaku-chan finished, smiling pleasantly enough.

Atobe took another sip of his tea. Really, it was quite good, and it soothed him very much. He was almost sedate enough not to notice Yuushi-chan's hand slipping up under his petticoats. Almost. He slapped the hand away and glared, though Yuushi-chan just chuckled at him. Still, his vision was getting fuzzier and fuzzier, and he could swear Yuushi and Gaku's heads were growing larger and larger.

"Oh, Yuushi-chan, you naughty boy." Gaku-chan laughed, only to Atobe it sounded like a cackle. Yuushi's hand was up his petticoat again, but he didn't have the strength to slap it away. He could barely hear, now, and their voices were growing dimmer and dimmer. "Don't tell me you drugged our poor Kei-chan!"

"Why not?" Yuushi-chan replied, and his voice was miles away. "You got to drug the last one."

Colors. Atobe expected blackness, but all he saw were colors. Colors of every shade, colors he didn't even know existed, all swirling together and pulling apart, until he came to his senses again. He woke up to realize that he was in the middle of a mushroom field. The mushrooms were large, much taller than he, and their tops were a swirl of all the colors he had seen while passed out, with the occasional neon accent.

After taking note of his location, Atobe flushed to find that his panties were missing. He did another quick check, making sure he was unscathed and untouched, and was pleased to find that nothing else was amiss. Why, that pair of perverts! He swore, when his father found out there were panty thieves living in a hole on their property, there would be hell to pay.

A little uncomfortable, and holding his skirts down just in case of sudden wind, Atobe ventured as best he could through the mushroom field. He soon caught the sound of some one humming, and made his way to a mushroom that was different from the rest. It was lower, and wider, and the top of it was upholstered with satin. There was also a small, thin mushroom humming and rolling around on top of it. Oh wait, that wasn't a mushroom, just a boy with a mushroom hair cut.

"Excuse me," Atobe said, somewhat shocked when the mushroom boy shot straight up to glare at him.

"You! You! I absolutely hate you!" And then the boy broke out into giggles. "Who are you?"

Atobe decided to ignore the strange behavior. "I'm looking for a very cute bunny named Jirou. He has white ears and a black negligee."

"Bunny, bunny, bunny..." the boy flopped down on his back and swung his legs in the air. "Lots of bunnies come through here... singing bunnies... dancing bunnies... but then the little green men come, and they don't dance or sing. The little green men attract the birds, and the birds come, and I have to hide or else I'll get eaten. Ooooh, how I wish that I were bigger! I' d show those birds then!"

"Umm..." Atobe had a bad feeling about this. "You haven't been eating these mushrooms, have you?"

"Why shouldn't I?" the boy shrieked. "Life's so dreadfully boring without them!"

This was getting him nowhere. "About that bunny..."

"Bunny! Bunnies that sing and dance! Bunnies that-"

"Yes, well." Lacking something else to do, Atobe smoothed down the wrinkles of his skirts, and felt the cakes he had hidden there. "Oh! If I give you these, will you tell me where to find the bunny named Jirou?"

Atobe held out the small cakes, which the mushroom boy eyed eagerly. "Are those... mushrooms?"

"No."

The mushroom boy looked away, disappointed.

"But they can make you bigger. And smaller. So that when the birds come, you don't need to hide anymore."

The mushroom boy turned around again, now interested. "You'll give them to me?"

"If," Atobe said, coyly placing them back in his pockets, "you tell me where Jirou-bunny is."

"He came through here not three hours ago," the boy said, all at once helpful. "You can take that path."

The boy pointed, and all of a sudden a golden path opened up in the middle of the mushroom field.

"Now give me those cakes!"

Atobe tossed the cakes at the mushroom boy, before turning to go down the path. He had just set one of his feet onto the gold when the boy called out to him again.

"Hey! Be careful of the two down the road, for one tells nothing but lies and the other tells truths, and they will answer but one question from you. And in return for the cakes, let me give you this."

A white, soft kind of puff suddenly appeared in front of Atobe, and he plucked it from the sky. It was soft and silky, and he wondered if it made you small, big, or any manner of wondrous things.

Atobe made his way down the path, wondering when he was going to find his bunny, when he came upon a fork in the path, with a bench beside it. On the bench was seated two boys, one tall and with a friendly demeanor, the other short and frowning.

"Excuse me," said Atobe, before he remembered what the mushroom boy said and paused.

"I see you know who we are," said the tall boy, his smile bright and cheery. "But just in case you donn't, I should tell you that he always tells the truth..."

"And he always lies," sneered the short boy.

"What a useless puzzle this is," Atobe moaned, "it's so easily solved. Which path did Jirou-bunny take?"

Both boys pointed down the right path, and being of sensible intelligence, Atobe went down the left.

Atobe walked a long way. The forest trees lost their brightness and became twisted and gnarled, and the farther he walked the less light made its way through the canopy leaves. His feet started to ache, and he started to despair. He wondered if he had solved the puzzle correctly. He wondered if those boys even knew which way to go to find Jirou-bunny. He wondered, listening to all the noises in the dark, if he would ever make it home.

Suddenly, Atobe felt a tug on his hair, and reached back to find his ribbons gone. He backed up a step, not sure if the movements around him were imagined or real. Then something appeared in front of him, a little brown animal, and relieved, Atobe ran towards it.

"Kabaji!" Atobe called to his pet. "Kabaji, is that you?"

Atobe stopped and kneeled in front of the small monkey, a monkey that looked exactly like his Kabaji, only he had an eerie grin on his face.

"Kabaji?"

"Usu."

Atobe started, and saw that four more Kabajis had joined the original one. They all made that noise, 'usu', 'usu', 'usu', and more of them kept coming, until all Atobe heard was a chorus of 'usu's.

"Stop it!" Atobe screamed. "Stop!"

Atobe picked up one of the Kabajis and threw it at a tree, where it broke and splintered like glass and fell to the ground. He picked up others, throwing them, but it seemed as though even more kept coming to take their places. Finally, overwhelmed, Atobe sunk to the floor and started crying. He was just a little boy, lost in this strange place, without shoes or panties or ribbons of his own.

Atobe cried for awhile, and he became very tired, and he didn't even notice when all the 'usu's stopped and the forest became quiet. But he did notice when two little hands wrapped around his arms, and a soft, sleepy voice called out to him.

"What's wrong?" it asked, and Atobe looked up into the face of his Jirou-bunny.

"I was looking for you," Atobe explained, still sniffling, "I was looking for you, so that I could find my Kabaji, but when I found my Kabaji he wasn't a Kabaji at all, and now I have no shoes or panties or ribbons of my own and I want to go home."

"I know how you feel," Jirou said sympathetically as he helped Atobe to his feet. "Look."

He turned around.

"I lost my tail. I'm always falling asleep, and it gets stuck in bushes and branches, but now I think I've lost it forever." Jirou-bunny sniffled adorably. "How can I ever be a proper bunny now?"

Atobe looked at Jirou's tailless rear, then fumbled in his pocket. "Is this your tail?"

"That's it!" Jirou said excitedly, as he started to bounce up and down. "How did you find it? Could you stick it back on please?"

Atobe pressed the small fluff to the top of Jirou's bottom, where it very magically stayed. Jirou wrapped his arms around Atobe's neck and laughed.

"I'm so happy! Thank you so much... what can I do to repay you?"

"Can you tell me how to go home?" Atobe asked.

"Oh, that's easy."

"And will you be there when I get there?"

"Of course!" Jirou leaned forward. "All you have to do is wake up."

And then Jirou-bunny kissed him.

Atobe blinked as he stirred, squinting into the sunlight above him. The shade of the dogwood tree he had fallen asleep underneath had, he supposed, disappeared as the afternoon grew late. For some reason, images of a younger version of himself in a blue dress lingered in his mind, and he shuddered at the atrocity. Not that he didn't look wonderful... in fact, he thought he looked rather divine, it's just that he would never dress in such a demeaning way.

Atobe ignored the weight against his side and arm for a moment, and lifted his head to look towards the Hyoutei tennis courts. The players were still practicing of course, and Oshitari caught his glance and waved to him, as if to say everything was under control. Really, thought Atobe. He leaned back down and looked toward his right.

Jirou was there, still asleep of course, nestled against him and attempted to knaw off his shoulder. What was the boy dreaming of? And when had Atobe picked up Jirou's horrible habit of falling asleep at any given moment? Still, thought Atobe, as he pulled pieces of grass from Jirou's blond curls, there was something to be said for slowing down and taking a break every now and then. And Jirou did look, in a word, rather perfect, as he slept there. Atobe shifted his arm so that it was underneath Jirou's head, and, to the sounds of distant tennis balls, he fell back asleep.


End file.
